The Trump Administration is busy reconsidering the United States’ approach to counterterrorism, and its revised policies will assuredly reflect President Trump’s desire to delegate more authority to his military commanders.  Hidden amid the wall-to-wall coverage of L’Affaire Russe and the President’s first international trip, however, are recent press reports that suggest the Department of Defense may be of two minds about being provided “total authorization” to conduct counterterrorism operations.  This hesitation makes sense.  Although the Pentagon and others have been seeking greater delegations in order to improve operational flexibility and efficiency, U.S.…   continue »

In his post “Israeli Airstrikes in Syria: The International Law Analysis You Won’t Find,” Asaf Lubin is perplexed by the dearth of discussion by what he describes as jus ad bellum (JAB) scholars about a recent bombing of Syrian warehouses (allegedly by the Israelis), relative to the robust discussion about last month’s U.S.…   continue »

On Thursday, the New York Times reported that Yemen had withdrawn its consent from US Special Operations ground missions in the country, following a commando raid Jan. 29, which resulted in the death of a number of civilians, including an 8-year-old girl, and a Navy SEAL.…   continue »

Yesterday, President Barack Obama released a series of documents relating to the use of military force abroad, including a 66-page Report on the Legal and Policy Frameworks Guiding the United States’ Use of Military Force and Related National Security Operations.…   continue »

The Obama administration says it plans to release a redacted version of the policy standards and procedures that govern its “use of force in counterterrorism operations outside areas of active hostilities.” It also plans to release data on the number of combatants and non-combatants killed in such strikes since Obama took office in 2009.…   continue »

For years now, the questions of where and with whom exactly the United States is at war have been treated as somewhat academic. It’s not that they didn’t matter, but a gridlocked Congress seemed unwilling or unable to take the issue on or to pass a law clarifying the Obama administration’s authority to use force in any meaningful way.…   continue »

This post is the latest installment of our “Monday Reflections” feature, in which a different Just Security editor examines the big stories from the previous week or looks ahead to key developments on the horizon.

I only had a few minutes on Friday to compose my post that day on Stephen Preston’s speech at ASIL.  …   continue »

As Marty has already written, the Department of Defense’s General Counsel Stephen Preston gave a speech tonight at the American Society of International Law “the Legal Framework for the United States’ Use of Military Force Since 9/11.”  Having strategically placed myself next to one of the microphones tantalizingly set up for what I assumed would be a Q and A session to follow the remarks, I was surprised when Preston exited without taking questions from the audience.  …   continue »

As I write this, DOD General Counsel Stephen Preston is delivering a speech at the annual meeting of the American Society of International Law on the topic of “the Legal Framework for the United States’ Use of Military Force Since 9/11.” The full text of the speech is at the bottom of this post.…   continue »

It could only happen in the movies. A major Hollywood company produces a film starring well-known comedic actors which involves the tongue-in-cheek assassination of the leader of a remote and rather bizarre dictatorship. The “supreme leader” apparently orders a secret group of cyber warriors calling themselves “The Guardians of Peace” (in actuality, the State-run “Bureau 121”) to retaliate by attacking the company’s IT system.…   continue »